The Haunted Palace
by dreamoperator23
Summary: Old Ulquihime one-shot that I never uploaded...


Orihime never told anyone this, but she sometimes still dreamed the same little dream that she had as a child. The one where she was a princess in a fairtale living in a grand palace with her prince at her side. Of course she knew such dreams were silly now, and had even known it then as a child...her young life already scarred by pain and abandoment. Still the sweet dream was hard to let go of and in her heart of hearts she still desperately tried to wish it true. What she had often forgot then (though she never forgot it now, oh no) was that fairytales always had a dark side to them and before the heroine is allowed peace with her prince she must suffer through that darkness...as she was suffering now.

Orihime sat on her freshly made bed twirling her pure white dress between her fingers. She had a love/hate relationship with the dress. Of course she hated what it stood for and the fact that every other monster slinking through the halls of this maze of a palace wore the exact same thing. Yet the symbolism of said dress did not escape her...her mind grasped symbolism very well. In fact after she had first put it on she couldn't resist twirling a time or two just just to see it flare prettily around the puffy pants she wore underneath. Yet if she was in a fariytale now, then she was in one at the point where the princess is under the thrall of the wicked witch or the sleeping brute of giant...or whatever other monster the mind could come up with.

They scared her. Aizen, Gin, and Tousen scared her, but in a rational way. Of course anyone would be scared of their plans and the megalomania that they gave hint to in their makers. Sure they were scary, but so were evil dictators that ran their countries under iron fists filled with blood. They were scary and horrible and yet...familiar. No one ever wants to admit that they are familiar with the evil that fills the world, but they would be lying if they denied it. It was the half-human things that filled the palace walls that _really_ scared her. Those things that looked somewhat human on the outside, but inside they were anything but. While Aizen and his cohorts were monsters in every psychological sense of the word...these things...these arrancar were monsters in the literal sense and who really wants to wake up and find that all their childhood nightmares are true.

When she was first brought here, she couldn't stop staring at all of them. From the lowliest servant to the mightest of Aizen's elite...they held a dark fascination for her. They varied in how human they looked...some were so inhuman and monsterous that even her curiosity couldn't keep her gaze on them for long. Others though...well they didn't look so bad on the surface...some even kind of looked pretty, but the more she saw of them the less she wanted to see. She had seen one the the prettiest looking ones skewer another right through the middle right after she had healed him. She had never seen such a thing up close before and she had wondered how something that was already dead could bleed so much everywhere. She had felt ill at that thought and had quickly turned her head afraid she would be sick everywhere, but the one who was put in charge of her quickly got her out of there and back to her room. After that day her fascination with them quickly died and was replaced by an all-encompassing fear. Now she could feel their eyes on her as she followed her guard on the rare occasions he took her out of her room to see Aizen. Their eyes that promised pain and worse if only they could get their hands on her.

Ah, and what of her guard...what of the monster that brought her to this place under pain of death...not for her but her friends. Somehow he should be the scariest of all, right?

Orihime's fingers stopped their restless movements when she heard the foorsteps outside her door. "I'm coming in now." she heard the deep and expressionless voice intone. Why did he even bother to tell her that, it's not like she could stop him from coming in. Did he do it so her heart could calm a little after that instant between footsteps and voice? So she could be relieved that it was the devil she knew instead of the devil she didn't? The door slowly opened and then he was there. At first she still looked down at her hands on her lap, feeling the weight of his stare on her shoulders. His eyes then must have been pulled away elsewhere because she suddenly felt lighter again.

"I'm glad to see that you have eaten everything." Orihime looked up at his footsteps and saw him next to her breakfast tray. "And why do you eat everything that is placed in front of you, Orihime?"

Orihime's breath hitched a little at that, but her voice was amazingly strong when she looked him striaght in the eye and declared, "I eat so I can stay alive and healthy for when Aizen-sama needs me!" She saw him nod in a approval at that and thought for sure he would call a servant to gather her empty tray and then leave, but he lingered. He didn't say anything, just stood near her window looking out. The silence started to feel oppresive to Orihime and her mouth trembled to break it up. She kept it shut though, for now anyway. Instead she studied his profile as he looked out over the barren landscape. At this angle she could barely see bone helmet that made up his broken mask, but she knew it was there and she was struck with a crazy urge to run up and pull on it to see if it could come off. Thankfully the irrational urge quickly passed...it was the thought of what he would do to her if she tried that did it, but the desire to make him look more human...if even just a little lingered on. As she looked at him his eyes quickly swung to her face and she startled a little just like she always did at their huge pure greeness.

"What are you looking at, woman?" he asked her

"Uh...nothing..." she whispered quickly averting her eyes. She thought he would leave for sure now, but still he stayed on. Orihime couldn't take the silence anymore and asked him, "Why is such a bright palace called _Las Noches_?"

He looked at her for a moment and then said, "I do not know, woman. It bore that name before I came to be here."

"Oh." Orihime said at that non-answer. Again her fingers strained with the urge to touch his helmet...maybe not to try to take it off this time...just...to touch it. If she could she would first touch the tip of the horn to see how sharp it really was, then she would want to trail her hands over the ridges at the side to see how those would feel, she figured it would be like touching a skeleton but with none of the yuckiness. Then she would want to touch that part that was so close to his eye...so close. She could feel herself blushing and silently prayed that he did not see it . And why was she blushing anyway? He was just a monster that would probably tear her hand off at the first attempt at a touch orders to not harm her or no orders. And yet he still stayed on. She was starting to get uncomfortable with his presence in her room and unsure what exactly to do about it. She could again feel his gaze on her and she was afraid that any small movement from her might arouse his anger against her so she stayed as still as she could on her bed.

Then suddenly he was right in front of her and in her startlement she looked up. "Your friends are coming to rescue you...the little princess held by the orgres." he sneered at her. "Don't you dare hope though...you belong to us." And with that he did leave her room totally forgetting to have her tray removed.

After he was gone Orihime stood up and went to her window...she knew she wouldn't be able to see them...but just to know...to know they were out there...HE was out there and he was coming to save her. It made her heart soar. Her prince would come best the monsters just like a fairytale and her trial and testing would be over. She would be taken home and would live as happily as she could, never seeing this place again.

And now why did that thought make her heart sink just a little? What a silly princess was she!


End file.
